OLD HOMESCHOOLERS NEVER DIE . . . THEY JUST WRITE CURRICULUM


"Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants."

Deuteronomy 32:2

Courses of Study

To view the Course of Study for each grade level, you can click on the "Course of Study" label
or "Search This Blog" for the specific grade level you wish to see.
To date, I have courses of study completed for kindergarten through fourth grades.

Newsletter Articles

In 2013 the Lord started me producing a newsletter for the homeschool group we are a part of. Every other month I write an article on a topic the Lord has put on my heart. I've decided to add these articles to this blog. I hope you will find encouragement through some of my ramblings. You can click on the label "Newsletter" to find the articles.

Saturday, September 17

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 33

This week we:
  • Memorized Psalm 23:4
  • Reviewed Catechism
  • Read stories 184 - 194 in Picture Story Bible
  • Other books, stories, and videos:
    • Sylvester
    • They are Going to Kill You from Missionary . . . Millers
    • Muffy
    • Mrs. R-P and the Chocolate Cherry Treat
  • Prayer
  • Song: Standing on the Promises

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 33

The practice sentence this week was: I had a fluffy blanket.

Small Muscle Development:
  • Game: Jars
    • I collected 20 clean, small containers with screw-top lids (10 were Carmex, and 10 were Ensure -- grandparents are great resources!)
    • I divided the containers between K. and me (we each had 5 Carmex and 5 Ensure) and put our tub of pinto beans between us.
  • How to Play:
    • Say "Go"; players unscrew one lid, put a bean in the container and screw the lid back on.
    • Then the player goes on to another container.
    • The goal is to be the first one to put a bean in each container.
    • Once there is a bean in each container, play again by emptying each container.
    • Make sure your child wins at least once.
Story Development:
  • Game: Egg Carton Tales see Writing, Week 29 for instructions
Writing Practice:
  • Activity: Write A Letter see Writing, Week 25 for instructions

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 33

Genres from our textbook were:
  • biography
  • missionary story
  • choral reading
  • informational article
Activity: Frumdiddle from Games for Reading -- this activity gives you a fun way to increase your child's vocabulary.
  • How to Play:
    • Think of an object.
    • Give your child one clue -- they get one guess.
    • If they don't guess correctly (and it is hard to do with just one clue) give one more clue -- they guess again.
    • Keep going until they guess correctly -- at which time you say "Frumdiddle".
    • Then it is their turn to give clues about an object and you get to guess.
  • You introduce new words by saying "gigantic" instead of "big" or by using "crimson" instead of "red", etc. To keep the game fun, don't introduce more than three or four words in a game.

Kindergarten, Math, Week 33

Monday
  • Game: Races see Math, Weeks 25, 26, 27 for instructions, called Addition Facts in these weeks
Tuesday and Friday
  • Game: Triangles see Math, Week 31 for instructions
Wednesday
  • Game: Fast Track - Subtraction see Math, Week 27 for instructions
Thursday
  • Game: Uno Math
    • This time I took 5 cards (number cards only) and figured out all the ways I could make 10
    • Then I gave K. 5 cards and let her figure out all the ways she could make 10
    • We went through the whole stack this way
    • Sometimes we had to be creative, for example: 9 + 9 - 8 = 10, but except for the last 4 cards, we were able to make at least one equation that equalled 10 in each 5 cards.

Magic School Bus Videos

K. really enjoys watching Magic School Bus videos, so I thought I'd give a list of the ones that would go nicely with our unit on animals/insects.
  • Going Batty
  • Spins a Web
  • Hops Home
  • In a Beehive
  • Butterflies!

Kindergarten, History, Week 33


This week we:
  • Read chapter 38 from Child's History (A Good Emperor and a Bad Son)
    • Marcus Aurelius was a good emperor
  • The Traveler's Guide to Ancient Rome by John Malam
    • We looked at the City Library and Theater and Music
  • Pompeii by Richard Platt
    • This book takes you through the history of Pompeii, from its founding through today, visiting the ruins with wonderful illustrations.
    • At this age, we are just looking at the pictures.
  • We read Rome Antics by David Macaulay again

Kindergarten, Science, Week 33

Here are the books we read this week:
  • Amazing Snakes by Alexandra Parsons
    • Photographs; we just looked at the pictures in this book
  • Creepy, Crawly Caterpillars by Margery Facklam
    • Realistic drawings; we just looked at the pictures in this book, too
  • A Ladybug's Life by John Himmelman
    • Realistic drawings; each page has a picture with one line of text, showing the ladybug's life cycle. Does not go into detail regarding mating.
  • What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You? by Steve Jenkins
    • Illustrations are made from cut paper; covers a variety of animals methods of escaping danger
  • From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman
    • Drawings of caterpillar/butterfly are realistic; story of children in a classroom watching a caterpillar grow and change into a butterfly. Two to four lines of text per page.
  • Thinking About Ants by Barbara Brenner
    • Realistic paintings, but the ants are larger than life so you can see them in detail; very interesting book showing ant's lives. K. kept adding information because she enjoys watching the video: Magic School Bus Get Ants in its Pants
  • Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bandroft & Richard G. Van Gelder
    • Realistic paintings; shows how a variety of animals spend the winter; two or three lines of text per page
  • Where are the Night Animals? by Mary Ann Fraser
    • Realistic paintings; takes you through the night with a coyote, skunk, owl, opossum, raccoon, frog, bat; two or three lines of text per page
  • Snail in the Woods by Joanne Ryder
    • Simple, realistic drawings; takes you through the life cycle of a snail; one to three sentences of text per page. This is an "I can read" book.
  • How Animal Babies Stay Safe by Mary Ann Fraser
    • Realistic paintings; shows how a variety of animals are kept from danger by their parents; two to three lines of text per page
  • A Year in the Forest by Bill Hall
    • Great color and black/white drawings; starts with Spring and goes through the year following certain animals and their lives.
Just for fun books we read:
  • If You Were Born a Kitten by Marion Dane Bauer
    • Lovely, realistic, paintings; tells about a variety of baby animals, ending with "Of course, you're not a tadpole. . . . And yet you were born, too. You rode curled beneath your mother's heart, growing and growing. You floated in a salty sea, waiting and waiting. Waiting for us who were waiting for you. "We're ready," we said. And you were ready, too. So you squeezed out, wailing. Naked as a bear cub. Soft as a porcupette. Wrinkled as a deer mouse. Free as a kitten. You."
  • Imagine You Are a Tiger by Karen Wallace
    • Realistic paintings; takes you from birth to being a full-grown tiger
  • A Fawn in the Grass by Joanne Ryder
    • Realistic paintings; takes a child on a walk through the woods and all the things they see
  • Each Living Thing by Joanne Ryder
    • Realistic paintings; talks about watching out for animals and letting them be
  • The Very Clumsy Click Beetle by Eric Carle
    • Story of a click beetle learning to turn over. About 3 pages from the end you get to hear the "click" of the beetle, which, of course, makes this a very fun book!
  • Mr. Carey's Garden by Jane Cutler
    • Story of a man who allows the snails to eat his garden so he can see how pretty it is in the moonlight.
  • My Father's Hands by Joanne Ryder
    • As a father works in the garden, he shows his daughter insects and bugs he discovers.

Saturday, September 10

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 32

This week we:
  • Memorized Psalm 23:3
  • Read stories 173 - 183 in Picture Story Bible
  • Other books, stories, videos:
    • Muffy
    • The Princess and the Kiss
    • Rain Out of the Ground from Missionary . . . Millers
    • Sylvester
    • Mrs R-P and the Empty Nest
    • Gregory
  • Prayer
  • Song: Standing on the Promises

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 32

The practice sentence this week was: I waved from the exit.

Small Muscle Development:
  • We tore pieces of tissue paper and glued them on construction paper to make a picture or design.
Story Development"
  • Game: Catch My Silly see Writing, Week 5 for instructions
Writing Practice:
  • Game: Make a List from Games for Writing
    • You can choose any topic and have your child make a list of 10 items they would need or want.
    • I told K. she was going on a rocket tour through the Milky Way. What 10 things would she want to take with her?

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 32

We read from our textbook all week.
  • Genres
    • historical fiction
    • fable
    • fantasy
The fantasy story had musical instruments talking, and there were a couple instruments that K. didn't know what they looked like, so we stopped reading and looked at pictures on the internet.

Kindergarten, Math, Week 32

Monday and Tuesday
  • Game: Triangles see Math, Week 31 for instructions
    • Only I set out 6 triangles at a time
Wednesday
  • Game: Fast Track see Math, Week 27 for instructions
    • Only with subtraction equations instead of addition
Thursday
  • Game: Number Stories see Math, Week 26 for instructions
  • Game: Fast Track
Friday
  • We did subtraction with money.
  • We took turns finding items around the house to "buy".
  • The buyer set a price (10 cents or less)
    • If K. said a price over 10¢, I would say, "But it is on sale for ____."
  • The buyer would then give the money to the seller (dime, nickels, pennies) and the seller would make change, if needed.
  • When making change I would say the equation out loud. For instance if K. was buying something for 8¢ and gave me a dime, I would say, "10 minus 8 equals 2" and give her 2 pennies back.

Kindergarten, History, Week 32

This week we read Miranda the Great by Eleanor Estes and followed the journey of the cats in the book Rome Antics.

Kindergarten, Science, Week 32

This week we started looking at mammals and reptiles.

Monday
  • We pulled out the Carnivore, Herbivore, and Omnivore labels we made last week and categorized about 20 mammals and 5 reptiles.

Wednesday
  • We made labels for Nocturnal (with pictures of night) and Diurnal (with the sun and daytime pictures).
  • We categorized about 20 mammals. I was surprised how many nocturnal animals there were.
The other days of the week we read the following books:
  • Big Tracks, Little Tracks: Following Animal Prints by Millicent E. Selsam
    • This is a good book as it not only shows the tracks, but has some problems for you and your child to solve
  • A Lady Bug's Life by John Himmelman
    • Each page has a large drawing and 1 sentence of text.
  • Insects by Angela Royston
    • Excellent photographs; covers topics from "What is an insect?" to "Insect defenses" with large photographs and font. There is just enough text on each page to give the information without boring a young child.
  • The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle
    • Fiction, fun book

Sunday, September 4

Kindergarten, Bible, Week 31

This week we:
  • Memorized Psalm 23:1 and 2
  • Reviewed Catechism
  • Read stories 162 - 172 in Picture Story Bible
    • going chronologically, we should finish this book in these five weeks, but that would mean reading 22 stories each week, so we are going to spread them over this five weeks and the next five weeks
  • Other books, stories, videos:
    • My Heart, Christ's Home
    • He Wasn't Crazy from Missionary . . . Millers
  • Prayer
    • we had a great answer to prayer: there was a girl for K. to play with at Park Day!
  • Song: Standing on the Promises

Kindergarten, Writing, Week 31

This week's practice sentence was: My guppy jumps.

Small Muscle Development:
  • We cut fringe on the edges of some strips of tissue paper to use for decorations
Story Development:
  • Game: How Many Words, see Writing, Week 27 for instructions
    • One time I had the words silly, quickly, and grass. My sentence was: The silly mother told her children to quickly clean the grass.
    • We laughed a lot while we were playing!
Writing Practice:
  • Activity: Word by Word, see Writing, Week 17 for instructions
    • Our title was: The Day I Scared Mother
    • We both have progressed from the first time we did this activity. I'm a bit more accepting of her ideas and K. is more interested in making a story.

Kindergarten, Reading, Week 31

Monday through Thursday we read from our textbook.
  • Ask questions using the Four Levels of Questioning and Comprehension
  • Genres
    • fiction
Friday our activity was Matches and Opposites from Games for Reading -- this game is a good way to increase vocabulary.
  • How to Play: Player A says a word (tree) and Player B says a word that matches (plant). Then Player B says a word and Player A says a word that matches. This goes on until a Player can not think of a match for the given word. Then you switch to opposites. The Player who could not think of a match gives a new word and the other Player says an opposite. This goes until a Player can not think of an opposite and you switch back to matches.

Saturday, September 3

Kindergarten, Math, Week 31

Monday
  • Game: Make Ten - Subtraction from Games for Math
    • See Math, Week 25 for instructions
Tuesday
  • Subtraction with Manipulatives
    • I wrote an equation and K. used Unifix Cubes to solve it
    • I wrote 2 equations in horizontal form and 3 in vertical form
    • Then I had K. write 5 equations.
      • I hadn't thought that this might be a problem, but never having dealt with subtraction before, she didn't really know how. For example, I had written 8 - 6 =. K. wrote for one of her equations, 6 - 8 =. I told her she would learn about that type of subtraction when she is older, but for now, the larger number needs to come first. That didn't solve the problem, so I took a stick of 6 cubes and asked K. how many she could take away. We went through all the possibilities: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0. We did this twice and it seemed to solve the problem.
Wednesday
  • Game: Make Ten - Subtraction
Thursday
  • I introduced the fact family triangles. The benefit of using these is that they teach both addition and subtraction.
    • I used poster board for my triangles. The base is 7-inches and they are 4-inches tall.
    • Write one fact family on each triangle. The largest number is at the top, so that "going down the hill" you subtract, and across the bottom you add. See photo below.
      • 0/0/0; 0/1/1; 0/2/2; . . . 0/10/10
      • 1/1/2; 1/2/3; 1/3/4; . . . 1/9/10
      • 2/2/4; 2/3/5; 2/4/6; . . . 2/8/10
      • 3/3/6; 3/4/7; 3/5/8; . . . 3/7/10
      • 4/4/8; 4/5/9; 4/6/10
      • 5/5/10
  • I introduced them by writing the four facts; example: 2 + 3 = 5; 3 + 2 = 5; 5 - 2 = 3; 5 - 3 = 2 (in vertical form)
  • I had her use manipulatives to get the answers for the subtraction problems, if she needed to.
  • We did this for about ten fact families, and she still wasn't catching on to the fact that the same 3 numbers were used in each equation.
  • I had her go get three different colors of pencils and had her connect the numbers; example: blue pencil line connecting all the 2's; red pencil line connecting the 3's; green pencil line connecting the 5's.
  • We did this four times and she seemed to be getting it, so for the rest of the triangles, I covered the sum, and she gave me the answer, then I covered the other numbers and she gave me the answers; example: (cover 5) "3 plus 2 equals"; (cover 2) "5 minus 3 equals"; (cover 3) "5 minus 2 equals"

Friday
  • Game: Triangles
    • With K. not looking, I put out 5 triangles, covering 1 number on each triangle. (See photo below) I used 1-1/2" squares of black construction paper to cover the numbers.
    • K. points to one and tell what number is hidden.
    • If I think she is right, I say, "I agree".
    • If I think she is wrong, I say, "Challenge" and tell the number I think is there.
    • If she is correct, she takes the square, if I am right, I take the square.
    • After we have completed all the triangles, whoever has the most triangles wins.
    • The prize was 1/8 cup of trail mix.

Kindergarten, History, Week 31

  • Read chapter 37 in Child's History (Blood and Thunder) you can divide this chapter into 3 days
    • Nero was a Roman emperor who lived not long after Christ and is considered one of the cruelest and wickedest rulers that ever lived.
    • Nero burned Rome and blamed it on the Christians
    • The Jews decided they would no longer obey or pay taxes to Rome
    • Titus destroyed Jerusalem, killed the Jews that were in Jerusalem, and destroyed the temple
    • In 79 A.D. the volcano Vesuvius erupted and buried the city of Pompeii
    • Years later a man digging a well discovered a statue's hand, which lead to the excavation of Pompeii
  • Looked at pages 82 - 87 in Ancient World
  • The Traveler's Guide to Ancient Rome by John Malam
    • how they dressed
    • what they ate
  • Rome Antics by David Macaulay
    • read this twice
    • the second day we counted they different types of columns -- Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian

Kindergarten, Science, Week 31

Now we are learning about what God created on the sixth day -- living creatures to walk upon the earth. This first week we looked at insects.

Monday
  • Read about day 6 in The Creation
  • I printed diagrams from HarrysBigAdventure.com of a spider and an insect
  • We talked about the differences
  • I had a blank diagram of an insect, and K. labeled it
  • Then, also from Harrys Big Adventure, I had a page of 12 creatures. K. cut them apart and glued them on construction paper labeled "bugs" and "insects".
Tuesday
  • We made labels for Herbivore, Carnivore, and Omnivore with pictures from clipart of what each would eat.
  • Then I took the insect/spider section of the Wildlife Fact File; we read what each eats, and K. decided which kind of eater it is.
Wednesday
  • Read The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons
Thursday
  • Read "Leave That Cricket Be, Alan Lee" by Barbara Ann Porte
Friday
  • K. invented her own insect (must have 3 body parts and 6 legs). This was a sheet I printed off a website.
    • Draw a picture of the insect
    • Name it
    • Where do they make their homes?
    • Draw what their homes look like
    • What do they eat?
    • What eats them?
    • How do they protect themselves from their enemies?